The Practical Knowledge Management Warehouse
Come on in and stay a while ... pick up some of the selections and see what we've got. You will find all you need to achieve dramatic improvement in managing the critical knowledge in your business. Here at the Practical Knowledge Management Warehouse, you'll find a great selection of options for moving your organization forward on the Knowledge Management front ... so start your browsing now!

What Is Knowledge Management?
Forget the theory and get down to business. We can talk all we want about the high-minded concepts and theories of Knowledge Management, and it won't make much difference in the real world. In truth, there are not that many things a firm can do from a practical viewpoint to better manage their knowledge. Why not just start taking on those few things, getting progress on three or four of them this year, and focusing on another three next year?

Before we spell out what we see as the top ten Practical Actions for Knowledge Management, we probably should lay some ground work. To us, knowledge is that special information that a firm uses (or could use) to better meet its goals and objectives. Knowledge Management is the systematic process of managing that special information to maximize business results. A theoretical optimum for Knowledge Management might be "to ensure that every employee has the knowledge he needs, when and where he needs it, to maximize his contribution to the firm's overall success."

Unfortunately it's a long way from that theoretical optimum to the practical world of running a business on a day-to-day basis. For that reason, we frequently recommend to our clients that they focus on the Practical Actions that follow -- the actions will not produce the theoretical optimum, but they will move the firm ahead on the Knowledge Management front. We typically organize practical actions under what we call the Practical Functions of Knowledge Management:

• Targeting Knowledge Critical to the Firm
  Action 1: Target and communicate the specific knowledge subjects critical to the firm.
  Action 2: Identify and support the critical intellectual communities of the firm
• Stimulating Knowledge Performance
  Action 3: Place knowledge expectations/requirements on all employees (all employees are required to "share on the inside" and "secure from the outside")
  Action 4: Train as many employees as you can in the knowledge the company must keep employed in order to do its business well
  Action 5: Incentivize key Knowledge Management actions
• Facilitating Knowledge Operations
  Action 6: Enable Knowledge Management collaboration
  Action 7: Conduct Knowledge Management Events as needed
• Deploying and Retaining Knowledge
  Action 8: Manage critical knowledge in all key processes of the business
  Action 9: Implement a Change Management Method
  Action 10: Stay linked to knowledgeable employees and former employees

For consulting services and workshops derived from these practical actions, take a look at some other sections of the Knowledge Management Warehouse. To get a closer look at some great products, head for aisle T where you'll find the workshops included in Knowledge Management Training in PKM ... or start strolling toward aisle P where you'll see our super selection of Practical Knowledge Management Support.

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